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Avant Immunotherapeutics stands to receive at least $50 million from an agreement with Pfizer for the development of CDX-110, an experimental brain cancer vaccine. The drugmakers plan to test CDX-110 -- acquired by Avant after finalizing a merger with Celldex Therapeutics -- for other cancers, including breast, ovarian, advanced prostate and colorectal cancer.

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Celldex Therapeutics launched an international Phase III study to evaluate vaccine candidate rindopepimut in as many as 440 patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer. The vaccine, which targets a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene, holds orphan-drug and fast-track designations in the U.S. Celldex also plans to start a midstage trial of rindopepimut in combination with Avastin, by Roche Holding unit Genentech.

U.S. researchers found that an experimental vaccine being developed by Avant Immunotherapeutics and licensed by Pfizer helped patients with a brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme survive for 33 months -- more than double the survival time of those who received standard therapy. A study author said the vaccine might hold promise for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who was diagnosed with a malignant glioma last month.

An Australian study involving mice with pancreatic cancer found that the RGS5 gene seems to be associated with blood vessel development in tumors, and mice without the gene survived longer and exhibited 50% tumor shrinkage after being injected with anti-cancer cells. The finding could help alter the tumor environment and make it more vulnerable to therapy, a researcher said.

Celldex Therapeutics announced it bought most of the assets of Philadelphia-based Alteris Therapeutics, including rights to ALT-110, a cancer vaccine currently in clinical trials. Celldex, a unit of Medarex based in Princeton, N.J., is a development stage biotech company working on treatments for cancer, infectious diseases and immune system disorders.

Biotech firm Avant Immunotherapeutics has developed a cholesterol vaccine that is injected twice a year to stabilize cholesterol in the body, reports say. Preliminary trials of the vaccine proved its efficacy, reportedly prompting the FDA to allow the company to test it on humans.